Match of the century

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After years of trash talk, and an unreasonable amount of name-calling, Kobe Smith and I finally got on the mat together. The friendly banter between us started in sophomore year biology.

The beef kinda died down for two reasons: he was a lot bigger than I was back then (the editors would like me to add that he’s still bigger than me, but I don’t agree), and we didn’t have a class together in 11th grade. I may act like I’m stupid, but I know when I’m outmatched. In the interest of staying alive, I wasn’t trying to wrestle Kobe back then.

Luckily, we were able to rekindle our beef this year because we had several classes together.

I had spent the last year working out and I got a little bigger, so I decided that I might actually have to step on the mat with Kobe after spending all this time talking trash to him.

Despite all of my preparation for this match, people still somehow thought I was joking. They said stuff like “he’s twice your size” and “you’ve never wrestled”, but anyone who knows me knows a lack of experience has never stopped me before.

In the days leading up to the fight, I was telling anyone who would listen to me about it because I wanted to make sure Kobe wouldn’t turn it down. I even got a blessing from Coach Tucker.

My coach was sick for a day, so I was able to miss tennis practice and go to wrestling practice. That’s when I made my move. Ryan, The Wave Breaker’s photo editor, was able to film this for us, and of course it was a huge honor for him to witness such a historic event.

The day of the fight, I kinda expected Coach Tucker to turn me away, but he seemed more excited about it than I was. The hype for Kobe and I to go head to head was irresistible.

I’m already acquainted with most of the wrestling team, so when they asked me to run through their entire practice with them I gladly accepted. I was not fully prepared for this to happen, but I’m in moderately good shape so I knew I could do it.

There are plenty of funny clips of me trying to be a wrestler, but this was no joke. I was completely serious about my match with Kobe, and I wasn’t going to take any preparation for granted.

Without spoiling the ending, I’ll just say that the match left me exhausted, but it was still a lot of fun, and I’m very thankful to Coach Tucker for giving me the opportunity to do this. From this tennis player to my wrestling friends: two minutes have never felt so long.